However, just as it is important for people to protect themselves from too much sun, they should also make sure that they get enough to enjoy the health benefits of sunlight.
Finding the right balance can help people maintain optimal levels of vitamin D and enjoy the mental health benefits of a sunny day without placing themselves at risk.
Of all the health benefits of sunlight, initiating the process of producing vitamin D in the body may be the best known. People can get vitamin D from their diet and supplements, but sunlight is an important source of this essential nutrient. Vitamin D is necessary for key biological processes to take place in the body.
Its benefits include :. Researchers have noted a link between exposure to the sun and lower blood pressure levels, with reduced death rates from cardiovascular issues.
They suggest that exposure to sunlight triggers the skin to release stores of nitrogen oxides, which cause arteries to dilate, lowering blood pressure, and may reduce the impact of metabolic syndrome.
According to other research , increased sun exposure may also protect people from the following diseases:. Learn more about the health benefits of sleep here. Being in the sun generally makes people feel good, and there are many scientific reasons for this effect.
One of these is that exposure to UVB rays causes human skin to produce beta-endorphins, which are hormones that reduce pain. Their other benefits include:. Learn more about the health benefits of vitamin D here.
Days without sunshine can be tough for many people, but some individuals find going without the mental health benefits of sunlight more challenging than others. The National Institute of Mental Health say that the following characteristics put people at higher risk of developing depression and seasonal affective disorder SAD :.
It is also of note that 4 out of 5 people with SAD are female. SAD is a specific type of depression. The symptoms develop or worsen when the days get shorter, and they improve when the days get longer. In the northern hemisphere, this means that people with SAD will experience the most intense symptoms in January and February.
Anyone who's ever encountered terms like "cabana" or "swim-up bar" knows that sunshine-saturated days bring on feelings of relaxation, but it turns out that the process is physiological as well as mental. When sunlight touches skin, a compound called nitric oxide is released into the blood vessels, a process that brings blood pressure levels down —which can lower the risks of heart attack and stroke.
While sunlight brings increased chances of skin cancer , a number of studies have shown associations between sun exposure and lower risks of colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Credit vitamin D for those wins. Appropriate levels of vitamin D also keep your bones healthy, Holick says, and that becomes even more important as we get older and menopause zaps our bone strength.
But even kids are seeing the effects of lower sun exposure. Researchers worldwide are alarmed by the increase in rickets —a disease once thought to be eradicated—which softens the bones and can lead to fractures. Get tan, lose weight? It's not quite that easy sorry. But there are some links between sunshine and weight loss. One study found that the higher your vitamin D levels were before starting a weight reduction plan, the more likely you were to succeed, especially for ditching belly fat.
Another study suggested that older women who don't get enough vitamin D may be slightly heavier than those who do. So, should you grab a halter top and revel in that s tanning tactic of baby oil and reflective blankets?
Not so fast. Despite the advantages, there are still legitimate concerns about excess sun exposure—including potential melanoma and early-onset wrinkles. The trick is getting an appropriate amount without boosting your risk. The term was coined by Dr. Normal Rosenthal at Georgetown University to describe the so-called winter blues: the lethargy and feelings of sadness and hopelessness that come when the weather forces people to spend more time indoors and the season provides little opportunity for exposure to natural light.
Some people have speculated that our modern lifestyle, which keeps people indoors under artificial light for so many hours, may be encouraging a form of SAD year-round. Rosenthal found that while not everyone is as strongly affected by a lack of sunlight, for the people who are, light boxes that blast a few minutes of bright light in the frequency of natural sunlight each morning can help to elevate mood and re-energize them to face the day. Studies of shift workers also support the possible role that exposure to sunlight has on mood.
That can have domino effects on nearly everything: how we break down energy from food, how strong our immune systems are and the vast array of brain chemicals and other substances that contribute to mood, weight, energy and more. Normally, people produce more melatonin toward the evening, as the body gets ready for sleep.
As more light creeps in during the morning, the levels of the hormone start dropping again. In winter months when the days are shorter, melatonin levels may peak earlier or later in the day, which can lead to some of the mood changes linked to SAD. Studies in shift workers found that less melatonin may also lead to lower levels of important chemicals the body uses to repair DNA. That could potentially lead to more mutated cells that can trigger cancer. Some studies also suggest that the light cycle may regulate the production of blood stem cells from the bone marrow.
More research here is needed, but that could be important for the timing of bone marrow transplants for cancer patients, and hitting the transplant at just the right time of the light cycle may improve the chances of harvesting enough cells from donors.
Other work found that the dreaded risk of rejection of transplanted bone marrow cells might also be avoided with the help of light — in this case, ultraviolet light. Scientists treating mice who received skin transplants found that zapping the transplanted cells with UV light eliminated the group of cells most responsible for triggering rejection reactions.
The strongest support for the role of sunlight in health, however, comes from its effect on mood. Many antidepressants work by boosting levels of serotonin among brain neurons. One Australian study that measured levels of brain chemicals flowing directly out of the brain found that people had higher serotonin levels on bright sunny days than on cloudy ones.
That effect remained no matter how cold or hot the weather was. Other autopsy studies found that people who died of non-psychiatric causes in the summer, when days are longer, tended to have higher levels of serotonin than people who died in the winter when sunlight is scarce.
Other interesting research, this time of people using tanning beds, hints that ultraviolet light may trigger feelings of euphoria, which may explain why some people become dependent on getting regular sessions in the beds.
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